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Alex Garland
| birth_place = London, England | alma_mater = University of Manchester | occupation = | parents = Nicholas Garland | relatives = Peter Medawar (maternal grandfather) | years active = 1996–present | spouse = Paloma Baeza | children = 2 }} Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer, and director. He rose to prominence as a novelist in the late 1990s with his novel The Beach, which led some critics to call Garland a key voice of Generation X. }} He subsequently received praise for the screenplays of the films 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010), and Dredd (2012). In 2014, Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a science fiction thriller which explores the relationship between mankind and artificial intelligence; the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He also won three BIFA awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best British Independent Film. His second film, 2018's Annihilation, based on the 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer, was a critical success, but was considered a box office failure. Early life Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychologist Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in History of Art. @ 14m40s His maternal grandfather is Nobel Prize-winning British biologist Peter Medawar. Career Novel writing In 1996, Garland's first novel, The Beach was published. The Beach is based upon Garland's own travels across Europe and Thailand, it tells the story of a young English backpacker who discovers an unspoiled sea shore occupied by a community of like-minded backpackers. The novel is noted for its references to drug culture, sequences of hallucinations and unique depictions of excess and utopia, which have been commended by critics. The Beach was initially met with positive reviews, and with a spreading word of mouth response the novel grew into a cult classic. Garland would later speak of the overwhelming discomfort with the fame The Beach had allowed him to achieve, "I never felt comfortable with it (the novel)." The Beach has been translated into 25 different languages and sold close to 700,000 copies by the start of 1999. It would later be developed into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1998, Garland followed up The Beach with The Tesseract, a non-linear narrative with several interwoven characters set in Manila, Philippines. The novel is characterized by a post-modernist narrative style and structure. It explores several themes such as love and violence through each character's circumstance and context of surroundings as well as seemingly inconsequential actions and the repercussions of those actions on other characters. The Tesseract did not enjoy the critical or commercial success of The Beach, but it too was the subject of a film adaptation. Throughout his career and work, Garland has expressed his love of travel (particularly backpacking) and his love of Manila, Philippines, much of which would influence his work. Screenwriting In 2002, Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy. He has said that the script was influenced by 1970s zombie films and British science fiction like The Day of the Triffids. 28 Days Later... (2002)|publisher=Fiction Machine |first1=Grant |last1=Watson |date= November 6, 2014 |access-date= June 21, 2018}} Video games such as the Resident Evil series also served as an influence for 28 Days Later, with Garland crediting the first game for revitalizing the zombie genre. Inspiration for the "Rage" virus came from real world infections such as Ebola and filoviruses. He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film. In 2005, Garland wrote a script for a film adaptation of Halo; he was paid $1 million. D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, though the film was later cancelled. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine – his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd, an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD. In 2018, Karl Urban, who played the eponymous role in the film, stated that it was Garland who deserved credit for also directing Dredd.Urban in Directing Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival and earned Garland a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film's lead actress, Alicia Vikander, was nominated for a Best Actress award at the Empire Awards. Garland's second film, ''Annihilation'' (2018), was based on Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 science fiction novel of the same name. Garland has described it as "an adaptation which was a memory of the book," rather than book-referenced screenwriting, to capture the "dream like nature" and tone of his reading experience. @ 32m15s-33m30s @ 03m30 - "In this adaptation instance it was like an adaptation of the atmosphere." Production began in 2016, and the film was released in February 2018. Garland wrote and directed all eight episodes of his TV debut Devs for FX Network. The mini-series is set to be released in the fall of 2019. http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/fx-alex-garland-devs-limited-series-shogun-1202894554/ Video games Garland is the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For his writing work on the game, he won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain (along with co-writer Tameem Antoniades). Garland also served as a Story Supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013. Personal life Garland is married to actress Paloma Baeza and has two children, Eva and Milo. Bibliography Filmography Video games Awards and nominations Academy Awards British Academy Film Awards Australian Film Institute Saturn Awards Other Awards References External links * * Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland * Beach Boy: Salon interview with Alex Garland * "Alex Garland is writing Judge Dredd" Category:1970 births Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester Category:20th-century English novelists Category:21st-century English novelists Category:English screenwriters Category:English male screenwriters Category:Living people Category:People educated at University College School Category:Postmodern writers Category:Film directors from London Category:Writers from London Category:English film directors Category:Science fiction film directors Category:English people of Lebanese descent Category:British people of Lebanese descent Category:Video game writers Category:English novelists Category:Directors Guild of America Award winners Category:20th-century British writers Category:21st-century British writers